Brussels Ambassadors’ Night: visit.brussels appoints 18 partners as Ambassadors for Brussels
Tonight, at an exclusive gala evening, visit.brussels awards the title of destination ambassador to 18 partners who greatly contributed to publicising Brussels in 2018 and confirming its status as an international MICE destination. The 18 new ambassadors will receive their awards before an audience that includes academics, doctors, European commissioners, university rectors, chairs and directors of international associations established in Brussels, scientists, hospital directors and other partners.
Around 150 people will attend the second Brussels Ambassadors’ Night. Launched two years ago by visit.brussels, the aim behind this event was to bring new international events to Brussels by activating a network of professionals. In fact, local talents and experts are actively participating in projecting the Belgian capital internationally. They are the best ambassadors for the destination and the best placed to encourage Belgian academia and finance to focus on the strategic challenge of organising an international event in Brussels.
For several years now, the Brussels-Capital Region has been ramping up its efforts to attract big international events. In 2017, 757 meetings took place in the Belgian capital, which meant that Brussels was once again the first-placed city in Europe and placed second in the world for organising conferences (according to the annual report of the Union of International Associations (UIA)). Each year, the conferences held in the capital translate into 2.6 million overnight stays. These events annually bring in 874 million EUR and provide work for 23,000 people.
The 18 Brussels Ambassadors’ Night award winners have contributed a great deal to these excellent results.
The organisations rewarded for their contributions were:
1. BREWERS OF EUROPE FORUM – The Brewers of Europe – Pierre-Olivier Bergeron
2. EUROPEAN ISSUERS CAPITAL MARKET FORUM – European Issuers – Florence Bindelle
3. 18th EUROPEAN CONGRESS OF NEUROSURGERY – Erasmus Hospital Neurosurgery Department – Michaël Bruneau
4. 24th ANNUAL EARMA CONFERENCE – EARMA (European Association of Research Managers & Administrators) – Nick Claesen
5. EMNLP CONFERENCE – KU Leuven Dienst Congress & Event – Dominique DeBrabanter
6.BIENNALE 2018 BUSINESS NETWORK – Business Network – Lorraine de Fierlan
7. ISLH ANNUAL MEETING – Ghent University Hospital – Katrien Devreese
8. SLAS EUROPE CONFERENCE – Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening Europe – Caroline Gutierrez
9. 54th EUROTOX CONGRESS – BelTox (Belgian Society of Toxicology and Ecotoxicology) – Dominique Lison
10. 28th ACI EUROPE/WORLD ANNUAL CONGRESS – ACI Europe – Airports Council International – Danielle Michel
11. 10th ESPA/IAPA CONGRESS – UZ Brussel – Children’s Hospital – Nadia Najafi
12. 35th EU PVSEC CONFERENCE – WIP Wirtschaft und Infrastruktur GmbH & CoPlanungs-KG – Denis Schultz
13. 56th INTERNATIONAL YOUNG LAWYERS CONGRESS – AIJA – International Association of Young Lawyers – Fanny Senez
14. 8th ESPES ANNUAL CONGRESS – Queen Fabiola Children’s University Hospital –Henri Steyaert
15. 18th ICEM CONFERENCE – VUB – Dept. Mechanics of Materials and Constructions (MEMC) – Danny Van Hemelrijck
16. EUROPEAN POPULATION CONFERENCE – European Association for Population Studies – Nico van Nimwegen
17. 22nd ILGA-EUROPE ANNUAL CONFERENCE – ILGA Europe – Björn van Roozendaal
18. AVERE E-MOBILITY CONFERENCE – ASBE – Philippe Vangeel
